The invention relates to a hosiery and underwear garments, and more particularly to continuously knit hosiery and underwear garments having variably graduated diameter portions configuring the garments to conform to the natural shape of a wearer""s lower torso and/or leg.
Pantyhose and hosiery manufacturers have long searched for a construction that would enable leg covering hosiery garments to more precisely conform to the shape of a wearer""s lower torso and/or leg, thus enhancing fit characteristics and garment appearance. In conventional hosiery manufacturing, some shaping has been possible on fixed needle circular knit hosiery machines through the use of stitches that are gradually reduced in size along the length of a blank as the blank is knit. For example, the top of a blank, which conforms to the waist of the pantyhose formed from two such blanks, starts at a given maximum diameter opening and then is gradually reduced in diameter along the length of the garment as the garment is continuously knit toward the toe. Such a blank having decreasing diameter in one direction provides a more precise fit from the larger upper portion of the leg to the smaller lower portion of the leg to the yet smaller foot. In such conventional approaches to reducing diameter of a pantyhose blank, graduated stitches are those stitches that have been reduced in stitch length, thus removing yarn from each course that utilizes the smaller stitches. This technique, in conjunction with the use of stretch yarn, has been somewhat effective to provide a garment with good fit characteristics through the tapering process. However, there is still a need for a technique to fully configure such a garment to both decrease and selectively increase a blank and garment made therefrom comprising variable diameters that follow the general shape of a female lower torso and leg both inwardly and outwardly.
The present invention provides continuously knit hosiery and underwear garments having variably graduated diameters. Embodiments of the present invention comprise a circularly knit, constant wale tubular hosiery blank having panty, thigh, knee, ankle, and foot portions that are selectively separated by increasing and decreasing diameter graduation portions to configure the blank to conform to the natural shape of a female lower torso and/or leg. In embodiments of the present invention, a blank for a pantyhose garment that utilizes two such blanks joined together is knit starting at the welt or waist portion and then extending downwardly through the upper panty portion, the middle panty portion, the lower panty portion, the thigh portion, the knee portion, the ankle portion, and finishing at the foot portion with the diameter of the tubular blank decreasing and /or increasing by the use of graduated stitches throughout the length. In the present invention, the blank is started at an upper panty portion on all of the needles of the machine, thus having a fixed number of wales and a constant diameter. The blank then extends to a panty graduation portion having an increasing diameter, then to a lower panty/upper boot portion of constant diameter, and thereafter to the thigh graduation portion having a decreasing diameter. The knee is formed with a constant diameter, followed with a lower leg graduation portion of decreasing diameter connecting the knee portion to an ankle portion of constant diameter. A final instep graduation portion of increasing diameter extends to a formed foot portion of constant diameter. Thus, the blank comprises selectively positioned areas of at least two graduation portions of increasing diameter and two graduation portions of decreasing diameter. The number of needles and resulting wales remains the same throughout the blank.
In embodiments of the present invention, the panty graduation portion of increasing diameter provides additional yarn and fabric in the lower panty portion and crotch area to reduce stress on the yarn and fabric in those locations. Yarn and fabric stress in the lower panty portion and crotch area occurs because a U-shaped seam is used to join the blanks together, either with or without a gusset, which reduces the amount of fabric in each of the blanks in the areas they are sewn together. In embodiments, after sufficient courses are knit in a tubular hosiery garment blank to establish a pre-determined cross-stretch and initial panty diameter, the panty portion is graduated with an outwardly increasing diameter by increasing stitch length. In embodiments in which the panty diameter is graduated outwardly, increasing stitch lengths replaces an amount of fabric lost to a U-shaped seam used to join blanks together. In such embodiments, an increasingly outwardly graduated panty diameter reduces the stress to which the yarn and fabric is subjected. As a result, replaced fabric in the panty and crotch area enhances the ability of the garment to fit the contour of the female anatomy in those areas and thus be more comfortable than conventional pantyhose garments.
In other embodiments of the present invention, a blank for a pantyhose garment that utilizes two blanks joined together is knit starting at the toe portion and then extends upwardly through the foot portion, the ankle portion, the knee portion, the thigh portion, the lower panty portion, the upper panty portion, and finally the welt or waist portion. In such an embodiment, the diameter of the tubular blank is decreased and/or increased by the use of graduated stitches throughout the length of the garment.
In other embodiments, a pantyhose garment can include a gusset of appropriate size along the juncture line formed when the tubular blanks are slit and sewn together along their slit edges. In such embodiments, a gusset provides additional fit characteristics to the pantyhose garment.
Features of continuously knit hosiery and underwear garments having variably graduated diameters of the present invention may be accomplished singularly, or in combination, in one or more of the embodiments of the present invention. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, the present invention has wide utility in a number of applications as illustrated by the variety of features and advantages discussed below.
Continuously knit hosiery and underwear garments having variably graduated diameters of the present invention provide numerous advantages over prior pantyhose blanks and garments. For example, the present invention advantageously provides superior fit and appearance characteristics brought about by the selective use of decreasing and increasing graduation stitches during the knitting process.
Another advantage is that the present invention provides a pantyhose garment utilizing two identically formed circularly knit tubular blanks which, when joined, comprise a panty portion and individual leg and foot portions, each portion having superior fit and appearance characteristics due to the selective use of decreasing and increasing graduation stitches in each portion.
As will be realized by those of skill in the art, many different embodiments of continuously knit hosiery and underwear garments having variably graduated diameters according to the present invention are possible. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The phraseology and terminology herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting in any respect. Those skilled in the art will appreciate the concept upon which this disclosure is based and that it may readily be utilized as a basis for designing other structures, methods, and systems for carrying out the present invention. Additional uses, objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention are set forth in the detailed description that follows and will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or by practice of the invention.